...And Just Like That

- I'm an Arlington resident.  It's almost like the stress of moving, changing jobs, packing up my house, getting a storage unit, bargaining for a budget-truck and negotiating rent for my house never happened.  It's really funny how our minds work - we often forget the pain and hassle almost immediately after the job is done.  It's pretty close to that feeling we get after a super-hard race or training ride. About mid-way through we're thinking - really? I can't feel my legs and this saddle is impaling me.  I do this on purpose?  Wasn't this supposed to be fun?  Immediately afterward, though, we're chatting with friends and teammates, telling war stories and audibly looking forward to the next race. 

My life in boxes

More boxes

All packed up

Ready to go

Luckily I had a hired hand to drive.  Ok, so he wasn't hired but he did drive.

 
That said, I am NOT looking forward to another move.  Most of my stuff is in storage at the moment so the move would be much less painful, but still.  Moving sucks.

My poor cat has no idea what's going on - he just left a multi-level, multi-bedroom house with access to the out-of-doors for a 2nd floor 1br apartment.  I think he's too confused to be angry right now.  He and the boy are currently having a standoff.  Cassius will hiss, run and hide whenever the boy enters the same room.  BUT, when the boy has food for him, he's all sweet and meow-y.  This is my life.

Week 1 of this new chapter went fairly well.  I started a new job in Tyson's - great position with a cool company but the commute just might take years off my life.  66 is a disaster, almost no matter what time I hit it.  I THOUGHT I'd be going against traffic - everyone heads into the city as I'm heading out to McLean.  Doesn't matter.  Between construction, lanes that drop off just as the on-ramp comes on and - lets face it - absolutely retarded drivers, I've run out of four-letter expletives.  I've moved on to stringing together multiple expletives.  You can get real creative-like if you want to that way!

Aside from the commute, though, it's been awesome. We're working on a routine and so far I think it's going well - the boy can comment if he thinks otherwise!  I get home by about 5 so I have plenty of time to go ride my bike (with my aforementioned MagicShine) and I'm learning ways to get to HP, where the various paths lead etc.  To top it off, I can walk to wholefoods, starbucks and any variety of shops or restaurants.  In Baltimore I could walk to the park -which was a nice park but there's no starbucks there.

All in all, I'm a happy kid.  No more Friday and Sunday night trips between Baltimore and Arlington.  A new job that I'm pretty excited about.  Lots of riding opportunities.  Civilization.  Despite the pain of packing and leaving my home of 9years and a fantastic group of people I worked with for 6years, I'm very happy to finally be here.